For the real British Olympic spirit, visit the Cotswold Olimpicks

Just one day until the start of the Olimpicks. No, I haven't lost my diary and ability to spell. Robert Dover's Cotswold Olimpicks takes place on Friday near Chipping Camden, exactly 400 years after they were first held. Dover, a local attorney, believed the physical activity would prepare locals for the defence of the realm. Which would have applied if invaders were unarmed and determined to kick shins.

Although the games feature four events, the blue riband is shin-kicking. Each bout involves two kickers, dressed in lab coats, clutching on to each other's lapels. 2011's champion, Ben Corfield, explains the scientific technicalities of what happens next: "When the judge says go, you kick hell out of each other. You keep kicking and kicking until you kick your opponent to the ground." Contestants are not allowed to wear steel toecaps, but all opt for heavy walking boots.

"You're allowed to stuff straw down your socks, but after the first couple of kicks it flattens and separates and doesn't do an awful lot." Looking back, Corfield admits: "It wasn't nice. I did have bruised legs for quite a long time, and they're still a bit sore even now." He is not defending his title.

Few enter more than once. James Wiseman has done so four times, and is now a judge and Olimpick organiser. In spite of the informality of the games, and the lack of financial incentive (each winner receives a small replica trophy) he believes most contestants train, "even if they may not admit it".

Word of the Olimpicks has spread, and athletes travel from overseas most years. This year, to coincide with the slightly larger London games, the Olimpicks have garnered more interest than ever, with Wiseman expecting crowds to increase from 5,000 last year to 8,000 this. Several film crews will be attending: "to find out where it all began". This is no bold claim from Wiseman – the London bid mentioned that 2012 is "exactly 400 years from the moment that the first stirrings of Britain's Olympic beginnings can be identified".

All that, and men in lab coats kicking seven shades of shin out of each other? What's not to like?